Hey, check out this year's 4-star Gov review here courtesy of that fab wordsmith David Robinson

Dearest folk, for all your comments and pix we've only one brief thing to say to you but we'll say it thrice - Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

And thank you for being at the Gov concert and for making it a bumper night. We know we can also speak on behalf of Ben Ford-Davies (Music), Jarrad Payne, Flik Freeman and Mark Simeon Ferguson also. We would not have live careers without you and we certainly would not have as much fun. And at the risk of exposing our limitation with mathS - Thank you. See some pix courtesy of some of our beloved audience members - Kristin Ford, Graham Burkin et al.

PREVIOUS GOV ANNUALS:

THE GOV

FRI JAN 31st 2014!!!!

POST MORTEM

Sorry for the slow response, I've been in detention. Demoing the new album.

We really appreciate your being at the Gov (yet again) in 41C heat and for your good humour re the night's theme. Some of those yellow IPC cards were hilarious.

Feedback suggests most people would like to do it all again next year now that they know they can cue for a voluntary frisking by our beautiful but brutal immigration officers - Marie deLint and Amanda Goodfellow. And that's just a start.

Then there's the support band, AVENUE who have charmed a bunch of new and, of course, loyal fans who already vow be at their upcoming Fringe gig at The Garden (see details below). Yep, hear those great new songs from the soon-to-be-released "Colour Blind" EP but this time with their drummer, Miles Sly!

Ditto the GERMEIN SISTERS. Again, as much charm in the crowd selling raffle tix as talent when on stage. The response we've had from their new Gov fans indicates that their upcoming Spiegel Tent concert will be yet again a huge success for the 5th year running. (see details below).

Fantastic young SA talent and gigs at reasonable hours. Bonus.

And thanks must go the Rosemary Cadden from InDaily for a most positive review of the night. Read it here knowing that you were there:

Ta to all the other folk who sweated behind the scenes in order to navigate us through the evening seamlessly.

And The Gov!

According to the immigration IPC (Incoming Passenger Card or as we called it on the night "Intelligent Punter Card")that you filled-out on arrival at the Gov gig, many of you come along every year because we've commanded that you put the date in your diary. Well, get this one down now:

SAT FEB 7th 2015 - The Gov

We promise not to change the date on you this time and it's only going to be 22C. Make sure your visa is valid.

Listen to a couple of the newies you'll hear on the night...albeit finished. Ta to Willy for demoing these courtesy of "Unpleasant Studios", PLYMPTON, SA. As close to detention as you'd want.

Now, notice the lack of social media icons? Apps? Blogs?

That's because life is busy and time is too precious to be spent filtering the 91.8% of banal, irrelevant, minutiae that might just steamroll its way to me, flood my inbox and enrich my life (as well as anyone else's) by approximately zero %.

Verily, the great hijacking and misuse of "social" media continues. Inexorably. Step by mind-numbingly dull step.

Good tools. Gone bad - A.I. gone awry. Of course, calling social media Artificial Intelligence is perhaps going a bit far in the general sense. I wouldn't be such a bore if these remarkable tools were utilised for the dissemination of noble and lofty causes of world peace, human rights issues and all things music. Real world dramas wouldn't have to compete with the current shallow Age of Me; a deluge of Me that threatens to choke the hell out of most us hitching along the super-highway with more toxic pollution than a smokers convention or a clapped-out Kombi.

Hark, I'm not alone.

Hopefully, most of you reading this right now feel the same way. Questions beg: If one sidesteps the hundreds of hours dedicated to the more vacuous of social media postings, is one really missing out on something of global importance? In the big picture - probably not. Are these new and novel tools being utilised to their full social and global potential? Not yet. Are we, the masses, critically examining these tools, our own behaviour and the number of daily hours devoted to "connecting"? Doubt it. Are we really connecting? Are we examining and weighing these trends for real necessity or value? Or app? Probably not, otherwise we'd surely see how trivial and vacuous we've really become in our brave new world.

Will we look back in 15 years and say, "What was all that smoke and mirrors about?". Unfettered info but less real knowledge? Style over substance? The jury's moot, the judge is mute and since we're all in the thick of it, we probably can't really see the forest for the trees. Yet.

In retrospect, we may discover that the global addiction to IT and social media's "contemporary relevance" was in fact, its irrelevance. Which makes us all look a bit air-headed really. Perhaps we are. One doesn't have to look far into history to see that we've always been suckers for novelty over knowledge.

Granted, every new technology must go through this same old experimental process before it actually settles down and arrives. And arrive it will and when it does I'll be there but till then.....

I'll side step as much as possible. Wake me up when there's some real content. Sorry, there are a lot of us out here who may be goats but we're not sheep. And our ranks are growing. So this is my tacit protest, my narcissistic misuse of my own network, my small, cantankerous contribution to the cause. Bleeeeeeat over. I'm off to read a hard-copy book on the beach. Henceforth, apart from the occasional or necessary business dabble, this website is:

If you want to know what you're in for, check out this live review from last year's Gov gig and book your table now.